Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Toronto researchers have demonstrated that their new smartphone application helps to significantly improve memory recall, which could prove beneficial for individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of memory impairment.

Known as HippoCamera for its ability to mimic the function of the brain’s hippocampus in memory construction and retention, the app enhances the encoding of memories stored in the brain by boosting attention to daily events and consolidating them more distinctly, thus later enabling richer, more comprehensive recall.

In a two-step process, HippoCamera users record a short video of up to 24 seconds of a moment they want to remember with a brief eight-second audio description of the event. The app combines the two elements just as the brain’s hippocampus would, with the video component sped up to mimic aspects of hippocampal function and to facilitate efficient review. Users then replay cues produced by HippoCamera at later times on a curated and regular basis to reinforce the memory and enable detailed recall

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2214285119

>The study shows that regular users of the app were able to recall over 50 per cent more details about everyday experiences that took place as many as six months earlier, than if they had only recorded events and never replayed them.

Wow

Interestingly, this shows how the current common thinking around memory is flawed. Memory is not like a muscle where brute forceing rote learning can help strengthen it. Instead, it's more like a set of processes. If you apply the right process, you can store stuff a lot easier.

The research method of linking visual to audio descriptions is very close to the loci method. This is essentially how folks create elaborate structures to "house" memories. The whole idea of a memory palace revolves around building a construct where you store vivid reminders, you then "walk" the palace now and then to reinforce the memory.

Linking is powerful, I have a cool trick you can try to demonstrate.

Write down a list of 10 to 20 words. It's easier to do this with nouns first. As you write each word, link it with the previous word in a vivid way. For example

Tree Dog Plane Flower

Picture a tree, which is being wee'd on by a dog, the tree then grabs and swallows the dog (tree - dog). Then picture a dog, a dalmation if you want standing, all relaxed on the street corner, when suddenly it starts transforming into a small spotted plane before flying off. (Dog - Plane). Next, you are on a plane, and you are all on your own. It's creepy when you look around. All you see are various flowers in the other seats.

Now, cover up the list, and you will find you can recall the full list. You can even do it in reverse..

The amazing thing is this can stretch to how many words you want. If you struggle on any part of the list, you will find this is because the image was not vivid enough. Make it absurd or disgusting if needed.

This system can be evolved and incorporated into things such as the loci system.

It has its weak points in its basic form as missing any link causes it to fail, but it illustrates how in seconds you can learn 30 words or more.

If you want a far better explanation, I would suggest reading Darren Brown's Tricks of the mind.

Is the app available for users not in the study?

I was able to download it on iPhone but you need a research code in order to use it so I guess that means no for now.

Ah ok, thank you.

I've been doing this kind of unwittingly recently as I've been doing a lot of self-learning. I noticed that if I tried to simply memorize something by brute force without any association (like dermatomes), it would take me significantly longer to retain the information. However, the things I could group and categorize as similar, it was SO much easier to remember them. Like, the dermatomes of the arm are very vividly sequential, so those were easy to recall because it's simply just recalling a number linked to a location which points to a new number and a new location (almost like a linked list for any fellow developers out there).

in the article it doesn't seem to mention any comparison made between HippoCamera versus just taking pictures and then occasionally looking back at them. like is it the app that does it or is it just revisiting memories? if i missed that in the article please let me know. i mean if this app basically makes Apple-style live pictures and reminds you to look at them via push notifications then ok it is an app that adds a little value, but if the recall is strengthened by occasional revisiting of memories then that should be what the paper is about.

Any ideas for a similar app?

Looks like spaced repetition to me, shrug